The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-09-09
DEEP CULTIVATION.
Why Successful Farmers Prefer 1t t
Shallow Flowing.


When the earth is parched with
thirst and opens wide its mouths i'll
mute appeals for water, and all
vegetation withers and fails to grow,
any information that can give the
farmer light as to how he can best
overcome these blighting influences
will surely add silver to his purse I'M
less having eyes he sees not.
There is perhaps no better prevent
i've of the effects of long, protracted
drought than deep and thorough cult
walton. This should commence not
with the drought, but with the prepara-
ton of the soil for the crops. Other
wise, if it be deferred until the ground
is dry and hard it breaks up in chunks,
severing the roots and otherwise dam
aging what it was intended to
strengthen.
Perhaps the most successful grape
growers we have are from France and
Germany. There it is the custom in
preparing the ground for vines to
spade it up deep, frequently two or
three feet. The depth and amount of
cultivation will depend very much on
the kind of soil and the crop to be
raised.
In the compact clayey soils of Indi-
ana we rolled the ground to soften the
clods. In the alluvial bottom lands of
Kansas we rolled to pack it; especially
in spring after the frost went out the
wheat was rolled.
By compression. as on our roads, or
by long standing as in our fallow fields,
the ground becomes hard and the pores
are closed and evaporation is rapid
and during a protracted drought is
thorough, as can be proved by digging
in the uncultivated fields or in the pub
lie highways. An inch or two OF. the
best cultivated dust only modifies the
general effect. This shallow cultiva-
ton only serves as check for the great
crevasses that would otherwise be
formed in the earth, admitting of
wholesale evaporation of moisture, and
in no way contributing to the great
design in cultivation, which is to hold
the moisture around the roots of grow
ing vegetation. If stirring and culti-
waiting thoroughly two inches of the
surface is simply to break these tubes
that this shallow cultivation theory
supposes to be carrying off the water
so rapidly, then a board, or stone, or
mulch will do as well. But our best
results are not obtained that way. Plow
deep and thoroughly cultivate. not less
than six to eight inches for dry wealth
er, then the roots of your crops will be
surrounded with porous covering
like sponge filled with air and water,
and the more the ground is stirred
the more air and water, because
the particles of matter are kept further
apart, leaving more room, and as air is
a non-conductor of heat the ground
will not become so parched, so will
evaporation be retarded if light
showers come the moisture will 90
down deeper not TO be eyaporated by
the first hours sunshine; so also by
capillary attraction viii moisture come
from below. In IA, the great drought,
chinch bug, grasshopper year in Kan
sas, piece of bottom land was plowed
deep and well and deeply cultivated
six times. Result, vigorous growth,
large stalks and ears, while most of
the corn with three to four plowings
shallow had very small, withered stalks
and chaffy corn. P. W. Curtis, of
Olathe, Kan, successful farmer of
thirty years experience, and firm be-
lever in deep cultivation, had two
fields rented out to different persons,
one of the very dry seasons, same kind
of soil and about the same number of
plowings, the one deep, the other shall
low. He bought the corn and guessed
it off the shallow blowing at fifteen
bushels, the deep at sixty bushels per
acre. Our most successful farmers, SO
far as heard from, are almost unani-
mously in favor of deep cultivation.
Kansas City Western Chronicle.